Connecticut Western News

The average unthinking man cannot seem to get it into his head that the intrinsic or market value of the silver dollar which is paid him in wages today is only 53 cents. It goes for a full dollar of 100 cents, simply because the credit of the government stands behind it, the promise and the ability of the government to redeem it in 100-cent gold dollar if necessary. And this gold dollar it may here be stated is worth 100 cents, whether in the form of a stamped dollar or a lump that has been melted by fire, and is received as such in all of the markets of the world, where its value is determined by weighing it. Our currency has already been tremendously inflated by the Bland-Allison limited coinage act and the Sherman silver-bullion purchase act, neither of which is now in effect; and it is the tremendous strain to keep gold and silver coin at a parity or equality which has been one of the principal causes of the present hard times, indeed the chief cause many of our best financiers think; and yet the silverites, if they could have their way, would inflate our currency still further, make an already bad matter immeasurably worse. For we do with effort still maintain the parity of gold and silver. But free and unlimited coinage of silver would flood the country with silver beyond the capacity of gold to redeem it, and beyond the power of the government to maintain the silver dollar at 47 cents more than its actual market value today. The consequences of unlimited free silver would then undoubtedly plunge the country into a panic worse than any it has known.-New Milford Gazette.